Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to method, apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium for contactless power supply and power control.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been known a non-contact power supply system including a power supply apparatus for contactlessly supplying power without being connected to a connector and a power receiving apparatus for charging an attached battery by the power supplied from the power supply apparatus. In such a non-contact power supply system, the power supply apparatus may supply power to the power receiving apparatus and transmit a command modulated by an amplitude shift keying (ASK) for controlling the power receiving apparatus.
In such a non-contact power supply system, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-298486 discusses a power receiving apparatus which controls a quality factor (Q) indicating the characteristic of resonance to receive power supplied from a power supply apparatus or receive a command transmitted from the power supply apparatus.
If such a power receiving apparatus receives power from the power supply apparatus, the power receiving apparatus controls to increase the quality factor of the power receiving apparatus. If the power receiving apparatus receives a command transmitted from the power supply apparatus, the power receiving apparatus controls to decrease the quality factor of the power receiving apparatus.
If the power supply apparatus supplies power for charging a battery to the power receiving apparatus, the power supply apparatus increases the quality factor of the power supply apparatus to increase the efficiency of supplying power to the power receiving apparatus.
In this case, even if the power receiving apparatus controls to decrease the quality factor of the power receiving apparatus so as to allow receiving a command transmitted from the power supply apparatus, the power supply apparatus maintains high the quality factor of the power supply apparatus while supplying power to the power receiving apparatus. For this reason, the power supply apparatus may not communicate with the power receiving apparatus using the command.